You may have heard of the concept of copyright somewhere, even outside of the Internet. At the most basic level, copyright is the protection of creative works of all kinds.
If you are a website owner, you've ever thought that the content you upload might need to be protected. If so, then you have come to the right place since we are here to show you how to copyright on a WordPress website.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, let's try to elaborate on the idea of ​​copyright itself. A better idea of ​​copyright will make you better prepared to defend your content against legal complications. It is also important to note that this article will cover the United States law . If you already feel like you are ready enough on the topic, you can skip ahead to How To Apply Copyright On A Website. Now, without further ado, let's get started.
But before, if you have never installed WordPress discover How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog
Then back to why we are here.
What is copyright?
Copyright is one of the three main areas of intellectual property, alongside brands and patents. It legally protects a piece of creative work. The fundamental principle behind copyright is that people should have the right to protect their intellectual property, just as they would with their physical properties. A copyright gives you the legal right to do the following with your content:
- Reproduce content
- Create content derivatives
- Distribute content
- Show content
- Execute content
Although copyright laws vary from country to country, there are many treaties in place that allow for the international enforcement of copyright. You don't need to register in order to own the copyright for something. In fact, the laws on the right copyright protect your content from the moment it is created. Also discover: The difference between trademarks and copyrights
There are a lot of advantages to registering your copyright, however. Most importantly, you must be registered to take legal action against anyone to protect your intellectual property.
How to apply copyright on a website?
1) Identify copyrighted content
The first step, of course, is to identify the content on your website that is protected by copyright. In most cases, this means text, artwork, photographs, music, videos, and similar documents.
However, although you can save content on your website, the website itself does not matter. to as a type of copyrighted material. There is an exception to this rule however. To quote the circular 66 of the Office of United States copyright:
A website is not explicitly recognized as a type of subject matter protected by copyright under the Copyright Act. Therefore, you should not list "website" as the type of author you will be submitting with your copyright claim. You can, however, save a specific website or web page if it meets the legal requirements for compilation or collective work.
Circular 66
To put it simply, you can only apply copyright to a website as a whole if it is accepted as a compilation or an collective work. For this to happen, there has to be a reasonable amount of creativity in the way things are organized on your website.
See also our guide on How to protect images from your WordPress blog
For example, a telephone book does not count as a copyrighted compilation. On the other hand, a list of the "best pizza places in New Jersey" doesn't count because a certain amount of creativity is required.
After that, you will need to make sure you determine the content on your website that you actually own. If you've hired a freelancer to develop content for your website, the entrepreneur owns the copyright and authorship of the content.
Also discover our list of 8 WordPress plugins to customize the Copyright of your website
In order to obtain the copyright, you will need a written and signed agreement from the contractor waiving all rights to the content. The same goes for all third-party content on your website. Unless there is a valid written and signed transfer, ownership of all rights rests with their authors.
It is important to note that it is not possible to copyright things like ideas, future website plans, functional design elements, domain, URL, layout, format, the "style and appearance" of a website, and other materials that are common and not original.
2) Prepare your website for copyright
To register your copyright, you must first prepare three things: A application form filled, a fee of deposit, and a deposit. A repository refers to a copy of the content that you want to save.
See also our 7 copywriting tips scientifically proven
In the case of an entire website, the repository requires all pages of the website as they are displayed to visitors. For specific content in a web page, you need to display the content as it would appear on your website to users. You can send all required copies by PDF Format.
Now start filling out the application form after preparing the deposit and fees.
3) Register with the United States Copyright Office website
This part of the process is much easier than you might think and costs very little. You can simply access the United States Copyright Office website and access the portal recording. The cost of a basic registration is $ 45, but you can easily find the information on all charges here.
From there you can go ahead and select the option to log into the registration system of the Electronic Copyright Office (ECO) to the left. It will bring you to the user login page where you can register a new account on the website.
See also Why do you need to protect your brand or logo?
Once you've created an account and logged in, it will take you to the page registration of copyright. Here you will be able to start registering your copyright by choosing your preferred option from the right.
Using the information prepared in advance, you should be able to complete and submit the copyright registration application. Everything is quite intuitive. An alternative to this is to send in your application along with the hard copies of the relevant material. However, in addition to being annoying, mailed applications can take significantly longer to process.
4) Add a copyright notice to your website
While it is certainly not mandatory, adding a short copyright notice to your website can be a good deterrent in many cases. In most cases, the notice consists of the word "copyright", the symbol "©", the year of publication, and the name of the copyright owner. Just add a simple copyright notice to your website footer. It shows that copyright law protects your content.
Recommended Resources
Discover other recommended resources that will help you create and manage your website or WordPress blog.
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- How to create a responsive menu for mobile WordPress
- How to share code snippets on WordPress
Summary :
Here is ! this was our article that shows you how to apply copyright on a website. We hope it has helped you. Copyright laws are a complex subject and not everything is as clear as one would like.
However, this is an important step to take to protect your intellectual property.
However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.
If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments. Do not hesitate to share this article with your friends on your favorite social networks.
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